WASHINGTON, DC, Aug.18, 2022 – Eight Phillips & Cohen attorneys have been selected for Best Lawyers in America® 2023 edition for their work representing whistleblowers.
Phillips & Cohen partners Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie, Claire Sylvia, Amy Easton, as well as attorney Molly Beth Knobler and Of Counsel Larry Zoglin are included in the list for Best Lawyers for their work in qui tam law. In addition, Cohen was named Best Lawyers® 2023 Qui Tam “Lawyer of the Year” in Washington, DC and recognized in the healthcare law category.
(From left to right top row: Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie,
bottom row: Clair Sylvia, Amy Easton, Molly Beth Knobler, and Larry Zoglin)
- Mary Louise Cohen is a co-founder of Phillips & Cohen LLP and a key voice in shaping the contemporary False Claims Act practice. Her noteworthy qui tam wins include a case against Quest Diagnostics that was settled for $302 million, which was the largest amount paid by a medical lab company for a faulty healthcare product.
- Erika Kelton has substantial experience representing both FCA, SEC and CFTC whistleblowers. She won two of the largest healthcare fraud settlements ever: $3 billion by GlaxoSmithKline and $2.3 billion by Pfizer. She also represented an international whistleblower who received one of the largest awards under the SEC whistleblower program, more than $32 million. In 2022, Kelton had another record-setting year, including a combined reward of over $40 million, likely the largest SEC whistleblower awards made to international whistleblowers so far.
- Peter Chatfield‘s successful whistleblower cases include a qui tam case against HCA, one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers, which was the basis for a majority share of HCA’s $881 million settlement with the government. A case he brought against Adventist Health System on behalf of three whistleblowers that were the first to file settled for $118.7 million. Chatfield recently represented a whistleblower who helped the SEC stop a $550 million Ponzi scheme in Maryland – the largest ever in the state. Chatfield also represented the first whistleblower to report and help prosecute the fraud for off-label marketing practices of man-made opioids. In that case, Cephalon Inc. paid a total of $425 million to settle four qui tam lawsuits and a criminal charge.
- Colette Matzzie has represented whistleblowers in a number of significant qui tam lawsuits involving both recoveries for federal and state governments and protection of patients and consumers. That includes a groundbreaking case against electronic health records vendor eClinicalWorks, which settled for $155 million and was featured on the CBS show, Whistleblower. This past April, Matzzie won a settlement against Physician Partners of America who agreed to pay $24.5 million to the federal government and Florida to settle four whistleblower lawsuits for Medicaid billing fraud and kickbacks to doctors.
- Claire Sylvia is a nationally recognized authority in False Claims Act qui tam matters. Her book, The False Claims Act: Fraud Against The Government (West 2016 & Supplements), has been an important reference for judges and attorneys since it was first published in 2004. Among her recent successes is a first-of-its-kind federal and state False Claims Act case involving cybersecurity issues, which Cisco Systems paid $8.6 million to resolve. In 2021, Sylvia along with her partner Colette Matzzie represented the whistleblower in a qui tam case brought against military contractor AAR Corp, securing an $11 million settlement and a $2.16 million award for their client.
- Amy Easton, a former DOJ senior trial counsel, Easton’s successes include representing a whistleblower against a West Virginia hospital for violating the Stark law and Anti-Kickback Statute, yielding a $50 million settlement. In another win. Easton secured a $12 million settlement from a New Orleans university for allegedly defrauding the Federal Emergency Management Agency for submitting fraudulent information to obtain disaster relief funds.
- Molly Beth Knobler has significant experience representing US and international whistleblowers in whistleblower protection and reward programs. She helped secure a $118.7 million settlement against Adventist Health systems for alleged Stark violations and billing fraud and a case against Prime Healthcare, its CEO and a cardiologist which settled for $37.5 million. This was likely the largest settlement by a hospital in a case involving alleged kickbacks paid to one physician.
- Larry Zoglin represents whistleblowers in qui tam cases as well as under the SEC and IRS whistleblower programs. He was the lead attorney in a qui tam alleging skilled nursing facilities owned by the Ensign Group were engaged in a Medicare billing fraud scheme. The case settled for $48 million. Zoglin also served as co-lead counsel in the eClinicalWorks case that settled for $155 million.
Phillips and Cohen partners Cohen, Kelton, Chatfield, and Matzzie, as well as Of Counsel Zoglin were also recognized in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in America. Phillips & Cohen LLP has been selected for Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list six consecutive years, most recently in the 2022 edition.
Best Lawyers ® is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. Recognition in Best Lawyers ® is regarded as a significant honor by both clients and the legal profession, conferred on a lawyer by their peers.To learn more about the peer review selection process see here.
If you are aware of fraud against the government or corporate wrongdoing that violates securities or commodities laws and would like to discuss your situation with experienced whistleblower lawyers, contact Phillips & Cohen for a free, confidential review.
ABOUT PHILLIPS & COHEN
Phillips & Cohen is the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, with recoveries from our cases totaling over $12.8 billion. We have been recognized for our work by numerous national awards. Our attorneys and cases have been in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and other news media. Phillips & Cohen’s roster includes former federal prosecutors, the first head of the SEC Office of the Whistleblower, a former deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the author of a leading treatise on the False Claims Act and attorneys with decades of experience representing whistleblowers. Contact us.